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'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

npr.org

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Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#31

Post by plainOldText »

sgift wrote: post #21
plainOldText wrote: post #11

Also: > A new "people holding hands" emoji will let users mix and match > different skin tones and genders, with 171 possible combinations.[1] This reminds me of the article "Code Inflation". [2] [1] https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692260599/interracial-couples... [2] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7057573

"Code inflation" talks about programs expanding even when they already can do everything needed (e.g. true going from empty to 8k bytes). That's not the case here. These combinations didn't exist before, so the functionality is expanded, not just the code size.

The true program in the article was merely an example to illustrate one particular instance of code inflation. Unless it is some incredibly simple program like true/false, most code is always designed to be evolved and to acquire new functionality over time. The key is to know when to stop, and add functionality in a sensical fashion. I would argue most of the new emoji combinations supplied will rarely, if ever be used, so just because one can add them, doesn't mean they should.

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#32

Post by arkh »

logicchains wrote: post #20
black-tea wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The regression towards caveman technology continues. Soon the general population won't remember how to form sentences any more. If they find they have to resort to multiple emojis or, heaven forbid, English to describe their feelings then they'll just have to become "activists" themselves.

Look on the bright side, it might allow people who don't speak each other's written languages to communicate better than ever before.

The problem is the meaning of most symbols depends on your culture.

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#33

Post by Animats »

plainOldText wrote: post #11

Also: > A new "people holding hands" emoji will let users mix and match > different skin tones and genders, with 171 possible combinations.[1] This reminds me of the article "Code Inflation". [2] [1] https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692260599/interracial-couples... [2] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7057573

Multiple modifiers on one glyph? How do you implement that in a font? Or are they all separate glyphs? Overlapping characters? Strange kerning? Negative-width non-breaking space? Reverse direction for one hand?

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#34

Post by thaumasiotes »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #27
thaumasiotes wrote: post #22

It seems virtually certain that the "drop of blood" is more useful for issuing threats (jocular or serious) than for talking about menstruation, for the simple reason that there's a lot more threatening than there is talking about menstruation. Calling blood "the symbol of the period" is overreaching a bit.

A drop of blood is a traditional symbol for blood donors, and I wager that is the context where it will end up seeing the most use. That is certainly how I would use it.

But this is the only blood emoji there is. A drop of blood may be a traditional symbol for blood donors, but blood, the substance, is a traditional symbol for all kinds of different things.

And I'd expect this to get used anywhere someone wants to reference "blood" in a cutesy way.

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#36

Post by thaumasiotes »

walrus01 wrote: post #29
thaumasiotes wrote: post #22

It seems virtually certain that the "drop of blood" is more useful for issuing threats (jocular or serious) than for talking about menstruation, for the simple reason that there's a lot more threatening than there is talking about menstruation. Calling blood "the symbol of the period" is overreaching a bit.

I would think knife and skull emojis are more effective for threats.

Why limit yourself? ;)

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#37

Post by funkythings »

mulmen wrote: post #17
dvt wrote: post #13

Outrage culture at its finest. NPR cites a few tweets. Let's analyze: [1] has 13 likes; [2] has 8. No one cares about emojis this much. Real activists (not Twitter keyboard warriors) don't care about emojis, they care about, you know, actual social progress. It took this group like 2 years to get 54,600 signatures when joke petitions like [3] are in the same ballpark. I mean, give me a break. But articles like this a…

The existence of this story and any flaws that may or may not exist in it do not represent the state of journalism as a whole.

There are thousands of examples with similar style across the "mainstream" media. At what point can we judge the state of journalism as a whole?

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#39

Post by beaker52 »

I noticed that someone criticised the blood droplet as "Ambiguous and multi functional". I've noticed a lot of this kind of attitude around discussions of race, LGBT and women's issues - activists pushing for "exclusive rights" to things like emojis, words, activities, places for specific groups. That isn't very inclusive. I feel like the most outspoken "social activists" have good intentions but don't really know what equality or inclusivity really mean.

Re: 'Drop of Blood' Emoji, Symbol of the Period, Is Praised by Activists

#40

Post by tomp »

plainOldText wrote: post #11

Also: > A new "people holding hands" emoji will let users mix and match > different skin tones and genders, with 171 possible combinations.[1] This reminds me of the article "Code Inflation". [2] [1] https://www.npr.org/2019/02/07/692260599/interracial-couples... [2] https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7057573

I’m just disappointed that they haven’t yet implemented eye and hair color options...
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